Contemporary painting from Iceland is the subject of the new exhibition “Hérna” in Hangar-7 in Salzburg, Austria. In questionnaires each participating artist gave background information to their paintings. The first was Thorri Hringsson, whose favorite subjects are food, women’s faces and landscapes.

What is it that makes Icelandic art typical and distinctive?

Most Icelandic art is international in both concept and style, but it’s also somehow over-confident and optimistic with a strong emphasis on nature.

What role does your country play, its history and its aura, in your own works?

In my landscapes the country itself doesn’t play such a big role. It’s more the place of my family and my roots, and in that sense the history is more personal.

Beyond this, what are the topics and feelings that you process in your art?

Through images of nature and food I try to confront the sense of loss, of the ideal versus the real.

Is there something like an instruction manual for your pictures – an ideal way of getting closer to the secret and intention behind the picture?

Think of each one of my paintings as a small jigsaw in a big unfocused image. Each time I’m confronted with a reality that fits the image. I try to make one more painting – one more jigsaw.

Please disclose to us how one of the works displayed in the exhibition was created ...

The spot where “light fog, clear water” is located, I visit almost daily during the summer, waiting for the right luminance and stillness, knowing that this particular spot, at the right moment, would reveal its secret and become that right piece of jigsaw.

... and the story of a chosen detail that is visible in one of your paintings.

The image of the Russian crab, I found in a very old Danish cook-book. What particularly caught my eye was the yolk of the eggs and the cerulean tint of the egg white, surrounding it. Most of the time I was painting it, I looked forward to doing the eggs, since they were the last and final thing that I worked on.
Rafael Pinho
Thorri Hringsson
Thorri Hringsson
Thorri Hringsson